Technical Field
The present invention relates to an architecture that facilitates assigning and load balancing of rooms assigned to a plurality of servers in a plurality of distribution groups. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system where load balancing is maintained for servers in each network distribution that handles scheduling and management of rooms in an organization.
Background Art
Global communications networks such as the Internet are now ubiquitous with an increasingly large number of private and corporate users dependent on such networks for scheduling and managing shared conference rooms and other corporate resources. As communications improves, more data can be expected to traverse the global communications data backbone between sources and destinations (typically, server hosts) placing increasing demands on those entities that handle and store data. In particular, demands for conference room management have become more complex. For example, conference room management does not only involve reserving a particular conference room for a given time, but also involve other corporate assets that are associated with a conference room such as televisions, projectors, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning devices and systems. Conference rooms in various organizations are booked by one or more users for meetings and teleconferences. Conventionally, booking and scheduling of a conference room in an organization is carried out using Personal Information Managers including Microsoft Outlook®, Infoselect®, Meeting Maker®, etc. Further, a user typically checks availability of conference rooms using a personal information manager application on his personal computer or mobile device for reserving a conference room for a stipulated day and duration as per requirement.
Generally, the servers that handle the conference room management for each network distribution are not distributed evenly. For example, if one distribution group does not function properly, another distribution group having multiple servers may handle requests that are normally delegated to the failed distribution group. As a result, the loads being handled by the remaining servers in the various distribution groups are not evenly distributed. Additionally, one server may be responsible to handle more loads than another server when the overloaded server may have less capability than the less-loaded server. The servers are, therefore, not optimally utilized. Furthermore, in a network distribution, there may be an extra server that acts as a backup server. This is a waste of resources since the backup server is not actively involved in handling requests except for when there is a failed server.
In light of the abovementioned disadvantages, there is a need for a system, method and software that can efficiently assign and rebalance multiple servers in a plurality of network distribution.